Music Magazine industry research task

Music Magazine feature analysis

Music Magazine front cover and contents page analysis

Preliminary Task- Stockley Magazine

Preliminary Task- Stockley Magazine

1.      In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

My media product consists of a massive headline that stands out called ‘Runway’ like most magazines have. Most magazines fashion magazines have a female as their main character but I have chosen a male character to represent men’s lifestyle as well as fashion to change societies view and to give them a different sight to look at. More to this, it is a black male which makes it even more interesting as there not many black people that appear on magazines. My contents page has columns to keep all my images and text in order and in place. I did this to make it look more professional so it does not look like it’s all over the place.

2.      How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product are aimed at men mainly as it is a men’s lifestyle/fashion magazine so it will not interest women as much. It is targeted at men aged early 20s late 40s. It shows men how to dress appropriately for certain events such as interviews, work place, wedding events or going to somewhere fancy etc. It stands out as there is a background of a catwalk and my male character is standing at the end of it in his formal wear costume. This helps show what my magazine will be about inside.

3.      What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

Stockley Academy as that is my institution that I got to and it is aimed towards male students in Stockley Academy mainly teacher, 6formers and Year 11 students. In this case magazines would go around quick in a school as people would see their friends featured in it so would support them by getting a magazine. More to this, it is constituted in one building so makes it easier to go around.

4.      Who would be the audience for the media product?

The audience would be male students and teachers that are interested in looking and dressing good. The magazine consists of how to dress fashionably good and how to dress formally for certain events as mentioned earlier.

5.      How did you attract/address your audience?

I used black grey and white as my main colours because they are the main three colours that men wear in terms of formal wear, such as suits, blazers and shirts. I used bold text with certain heading for example the heading of the magazine name of course. I used the same colours throughout as I wanted the magazine cover and contents page to have a colour coordination to make it look professional and sophisticated.

6.      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have used many technologies through creating my Stockley magazine such as Photoshop for editing images and cropping them out to make them look professional. I have use InDesign to actually create my magazine on there and using the columns and grids to help put my images and texts in place. More to this, I also used Microsoft for certain things to get to my magazine point such as Word document for initial ideas.

7.      Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt?

I have learnt how to use many different technologies that I have never used before. I have learnt what GRANITE is and the different type of codes and conventions within a magazine. I also learnt how to sue different software’s that I haven’t used in ICT so it was good learning something that was not being in a class that is all about computer based topics but something completely different.

Stockley Magazine Contents Page

Stockley Magazine Front Cover

Granite

Contents Analysis (Vogue 2)

Contents Page Analysis (Vogue)

Front Cover Analysis (Vogue)

Front Cover Magazine Analysis (GQ)

Print Industry

Print Industry- Magazines

1)    Information about the magazine publishing industry

-         Two thirds of the UK population, 42 million people, read a newspaper in print or digitally every week. 

-          News brands - national, regional and local newspapers in print and digital - are by far the biggest investors in news in the UK, accounting for more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of the total spend on news provision in the UK. 

-         In 2013, publishing exported services worth £1.31bn, up from £806m in 2009.

-         Magazines sales are falling

-         26% of people prefer the tablet version

 

2)    5 reasons why magazine sales might be falling in the UK at this time.

-          Young adults like ourselves use the internet to find out things nowadays as it gives out the same information as it does in a magazine

-          It is totally free so people will be saving money

-          Magazines are not always reliable and publishers like to make good stories, even if they are lies as they would need the magazines to sell in order for them to receive money

-          People cannot be bothered to go out to the shops to just buy a magazine when they can look on the internet which will not take a minute

-          Market swamped with brands

 

3)    6 different genres of magazines

-          Glamour

-          Lifestyle

-          Health

-          Fashion

-          Sport

-          Music

4)    Choose 1 type that you have identified and write down 10 conventions that the audience might expect to see if they were to buy that magazine?

-          The genre I chose was the Drake men’s lifestyle magazine. One magazine that represents men’s lifestyle is GQ. The first convention that the audience can clearly see on the front cover is the font. The font is in big, bold letters making it stand out for people to notice the words ‘the best dressed men in the world’. As well as the name of the magazine ‘GQ’ is big.GQ is an American print industry magazine company. The background colour of the front cover has dark colours such as black and navy blue to match the characters outfit. This so the background colour and the characters colour collide well together to give it that dark effect. The audience for this magazine would be aimed at men as it is a men’s lifestyle magazine. The age range would be 18+ as this is the adult age for boys to become men and see things in a different perspective. The main image on the front cover is an RnB artist Drake. He is wearing a smart, formal suit that clashes in with the background effect. The strapline on the front cover is ‘the best dressed men in the world’ this strapline is referring to Drake as he is the main image on the front cover.